Best fruit trees for Southern California
HU-622889343
last year
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socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24
last yearHU-622889343 thanked socalgal_gw Zone USDA 10b Sunset 24Related Discussions
Container fruiting plants for Southern California
Comments (3)many fruit trees will do well containers on the west facing side, but will also need protection from the hot summer sun with shade cloth for many years until a fuller canopy develops. the pot itself should always be shaded in our summer climate to avoid overheating roots. you'll need a larger sized container if you expect to hold a decent Amt of fruit. I've nectarines , citrus, cherry and blueberries both standard & dwarf stock in containers. You could add more citrus, like any of the 4winds 'dwarf' trees (most retail ones are on trifoliate). Or true dwarf peach, nectarines, or apricot on from Dave Wilson nursery (nectazee, honey babe, pixiecot, etc). you could buy new 'standard' full size trees & they tend to dwarf naturally dropped in the container, but the trees listed above are a little easier when you're starting out....See Morewhats a good small shade tree for southern California?
Comments (10)How about cork oak? (if you're able to find it) As far as desert trees, I think you're thinking of Palo Verde. I think it would meet all your needs. If you were willing to have fruit, a fig tree could be another option, but they can get messy if you don't harvest all the fruit before it falls to the ground (unless you got a male fig tree). Pakistan mulberry might be another option, this variety is more tolerant to heat, and mulberry trees have beautiful shade leaf foliage, but again, if you don't pick all those mulberries it can be messy. Last one to mention is a "California pepper tree" (actually originates from Peru). It's a medium-fast grower and is fairly drought tolerant. But a word of caution, if you do supply it with a lot of water for many years and it does grow big, but then it goes years without any water at all, it will suffer drought stress and become susceptible to disease. Only the bush-level trees that haven't grown to a huge size are truly fully drought tolerant. They can drop a lot of leaves and little red berries, so can be a bit messy. Pepper trees also put out a lot of surface roots, so it's unlikely you're going to plant anything below it. Before you plant one, I'd rub the leaves across the top of your hand because there are a small number of people who have a contact allergy to the leaves. They can be a beautiful medium small tree....See Moretop 10 trees for southern california backyard
Comments (19)I will add: Camphor Tree, if you have enough space, the roots can be expansive. The leaves smell aromatic. This can be a big tree and should not be planted too close to the house or sidewalks. Pepper Tree Spanish Cork Oak, they are drought tolerant and don't get too big, and have amazing squishy bark, this is where cork stoppers on wine bottles come from. Pomegranate grows exceptionally well in this climate. Even if you don't like eating them the fruits can be very decorative hanging from the tree, and the tree also produces pretty fiery orange blossoms. Pomegranate usually grows more like a giant bush-tree though, not really the best for shade. A lot of people have never tried a truly fresh pomegranate right off the tree, they taste much much better when really fresh. And a lot of people do not know the proper technique for cutting open a pomegranate and removing the arils, so they wrongly think eating pomegranate is too much work and too messy. When it comes to Mulberry trees, Persian Black is by far the best tasting variety. However, if you're in climate zone 10 Pakistan Mulberry will grow better and is also a good tasting variety, with larger fruit size too. If you go with a fruitless male Mulberry (as some people do to avoid all the messy berries falling), there could be pollen allergy issues (if not you, someone else in the neighborhood). The Black varieties are the best tasting, but the black berries can make a mess on the ground and stain the sidewalk, or get tracked indoors on your shoes on the carpet, so that's something that should be considered. Another little fact, mulberry leaves are not poisonous and can be fed to pigs or goats, a favorite food of silkworms too. Mulberry trees have beautiful shade foliage. If you're looking for some more exotic choices you might also see this thread: Sacred trees in India...See MoreAttempts at trying to grow Coconut trees in Southern California
Comments (20)I observe that the few specimens which did succeed all seem to have one thing in common - protection by buildings (e.g. Newport Beach, Corona, Orange County, Del Mar, La Quinta Inn). Perhaps a systematic study of thermal shielding should be done regarding this. Do not plant in the ground until it develops a foot or so of solid trunk; it may need to be kept indoors part-time until it does. When planted in the ground the palm must have its own isolated soil (almost as if it were still in the pot) so that it does not get affected by other plants. During the summer water it almost daily. Also, some sort of transparent coating over the soil allotment (but not covering the rest of the tree) during the winter would help to protect it from rain but let in the sunlight; only open the coating to give it lukewarm (not cold) water during the morning. Else, Winter monthly rainfall must not exceed around 60-70 mm, and no more than around 2 or 3 months where the record low has dropped below freezing. For the coldest month, daytime high close to 70F, with corresponding night temperature not below 45-50 F. A couple of slightly inland places in Orange County may satisfy this requirement. At first one may think that the likes of Pasadena and Palm Springs could also satisfy the requirement, but the former has almost double the allowed winter rainfall, and the latter has too many months where the record low was below freezing, increasing the risk that chilly nights can be semi-regular rather than being a relatively rare occurrence. On this note, I hear that the Nepal/Mexican/Jamaican tall species are slightly better at tolerating the occasional chilly evening than the Malaysian dwarf varieties - in fact the Corona tree may be of such a type. The nearest comparison to Coconuts being planted in semi-Mediterranean type climates with mainly Winter rain are Madeira/Porto Santo (latitude 32), and Geraldton W.A. (latitude 28). They just about manage in those locations. A whole week of daytime temps consistently below 56F is a critical threshold for (non) survival, and perhaps this is what causes so many specimens in CA to fail. Indeed, Southern Florida, parts of coastal Queensland, and even Hong Kong have all experienced this at least once in their history with the loss of some weaker specimens. (BTW, I am temporarily living in the United Kingdom in a village near Gatwick, where in 2019 I kept a mini Coconut Palm from the supermarket outdoors in the pot and wanted to see how long it could survive with minimal assistance. Thanks to an unusually hot summer where there was a week of 100F followed by a relatively dry fall that year, it remained largely undamaged until the first week of November, then temperatures suddenly nosedived where a Canada-style frost arrived and within a week it was gone)....See MoreL K
last yearkittymoonbeam
11 months agoSoCalGardenNut
11 months agolast modified: 11 months agoLars
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agoicecaligardener
10 months ago
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